We recently had an interesting challenge here at MartianCraft: We hired a new business-side employee who had absolutely no mobile technology background. Their business background was impressive, and they were a perfect fit for what we were looking for — but we had to quickly get them up to speed on our business.

Here at MartianCraft, we have been providing custom solutions for mobile development for nearly two decades, and, to say the least, we have gotten used to assuming that everyone we employ knows mobile. Day to day, we are surrounded by developers, designers, and managers who live and breathe all things Apple and mobile. Any one of them could easily tell you the amount of RAM in the first iPhone and how many pixels are on a Retina screen or talk for hours about technologies like LIDAR, SwiftUI, ARKit, and VR — as naturally as some of us talk about our children.

In fact, we don’t just assume that our coworkers know the mobile industry — we tend to assume that everyone does. But the reality is that most of the world has a basic consumer-level knowledge of mobile technology (and computers in general), leaving us to patiently (or not) provide tech support to friends and family while debunking dark-age myths and outright dangerous info being spread on social media.

It’s easy to forget that modern technology is a challenging and confusing topic for the majority of people. One study found that only 5% of people possess a high skillset with computers. And while we tend to assume that the younger generation is naturally better with computers, the reality is that computers have become too easy to use, so when something goes wrong younger folks are just as lost as everyone else.

What can we do to help our new employee, our neighbors, and our kids come up to speed on the seemingly magical word of technology all around them? One answer that might seem surprising in 2022 is our old trusted internet friend, the blog.

This is a list of blogs that we at MartianCraft read ourselves. They not only discuss mobile technology from the code level but also talk about what is happening in the world of mobile tech from a business, user, and — yes — even a technologist’s perspective.

• MacRumors — Yes, Apple is a computer company, and they do a lot more than iPhones. But (almost frustratingly, to us old-school Apple fans) the iPhone accounts for 49% of their revenue — and services are another 23%, with many of those services being mobile related. Therefore, Apple news is mobile news, and MacRumors has some of the best coverage out there.

• Apple Insider — MacRumors primarily focuses on rumors and the future, while the coverage at Apple Insider is more along the lines of a typical news publication, covering the lifecycle of the Apple world.

• TechCrunch — TechCrunch has long been a trusted name in all things technology, but some readers may be surprised to know that its mobile coverage is also a robust and educational news source. (Look for the Apps section on the site.)

• ZDNet — Similar to TechCrunch, ZDNET has a long and distinguished journalism history and also has a mobile-only section that covers the ins and outs of the industry.

• Read Write — Let me just say: I love what Read Write is doing for mobile tech news. While its news base is a bit larger than just mobile, covering startups, fintech, crypto, and more, it churns out an endless stream of insightful articles about where new technology is heading and what it means for you as a consumer or a business.

• iMore — iMore is another Apple-centric blog, and it dives a bit deeper into the technical side than some of the consumer-facing options like Apple Insider and MacRumors. The folks at iMore frequently research and break news that has deep insights into what is happening in the world of mobile.

• Technology Review — MIT’s Technology Review is the world’s longest-running tech magazine, with its first issue published in 1899. While it’s not focused specifically on mobile by any means, if you are interested in the ever-changing world of technology it’s more than safe to say that the fine chaps at MIT know what they are talking about.

There are many more options out there that are not as mobile specific, and possibly not always even technology-centric, that we find ourselves frequently receiving links from and discussing among our team. Be sure to check out the great coverage by Gizmodo, Engadget, Wired, The Next Web, and The Verge as well.

Reading a bunch of blogs isn’t going to make you a mobile expert overnight, but it is a solid first step toward getting up to speed (and staying up to date) in an industry that continues to grow faster than anyone expects.

If you are considering making a career change to mobile technology as a designer, developer, manager, sales rep, or anything else, you want to make sure you have the lingo down and a deep understanding of what is around the corner. These news sources will help make sure you can hold conversations around the dinner table with mobile tech geeks like the ones here at MartianCraft.